Noticed the tube is extra crowded at the moment? Feel like you can’t get a table at a restaurant without queuing for five hours? It probably has something to do with London now being the most highly populated its been since 1939.

Over the last 25 years, our big beautiful city has been getting very popular and as a result the city’s population has grown by an impressive two million, meaning that London is now home to a staggering 8.6 million people! That’s the highest it’s been in 76 years. And it’s not slowing down any time soon. Boris Johnson reckons this growth will continue and has said that we could reach 11 million by 2050. Good luck trying to get a flat/job/dinner reservation then!

If you haven’t noticed much of a change, you may be hanging out around Islington, which has actually seen a decrease in residents from 343,000 in 1939 to 221,000 in 2015. Those of you in Hillingdon, meanwhile, must be squeezed in like sardines with resident numbers increasing from 159,000 in 1939 to 289,000 in 2015.

Move right the way down the carriages people, I’m sure we can squeeze a few more bodies in.

Time Out tweets

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